Hardware

Prices are theoretically determined by supply and demand: if a lot of people want something, like RAM, then prices tend to do up quickly. On the flip side, if the demand for something falls, like it people no longer want RAM as much as they do now, then prices should, in theory, go down gradually.

I strongly believe that we are in an AI bubble right now, and when it bursts we will see a sharp decline in demand for PC parts, including RAM and SSD storage.

Sadly prices tend to go up like a rocket and fall like a feather. They go up way faster than they come down. Don't expect prices to go back down anytime soon, even if the bubble pops...

To make matters worse, we also have to consider inflation, which essentially represents a decrease in value of the dollar, relative to various things that you can buy with it. Inflation basically means that we all get less for a dollar every year. Some years our dollar gets 2% less valuable, other years it can be much worse. But that is to say that we should expect things to get more expensive over time.

Finally, on a positive note, tech tends to slowly get cheaper over time in the long run as technological improvements make it easier and cheaper to manufacture better technology. As much as 32gb of RAM costs today, having that much ram would have been pretty much unheard of 20 years ago, and probably even more expensive and worse than today.

So yeah, the cost of PC parts sucks right now. We're gonna have to make do with what we have and, if you need to buy something, buy what you can afford.